RunThinkShootLive's Ville Competitions Created 5 years ago2019-01-07 16:03:37 UTC by monster_urby

For those not in the know, RunThinkShootLive.com is no longer going to be hosting the "Villes" competitions as Phillip has now stepped away from the site and gaming indefinitely.

These Villes were basically competitions, based on making themed single player maps, specifically for Half-Life 2: Episode 2. For example, SniperVille, HalloweenVille, BridgeVille etc. The time scale for each competition was usually no longer than a month, meaning that mappers would need to be creative and resourceful in order to produce something that would be of a reasonable size and quality within a small timespan. Some truly remarkable maps came out of these and it's a shame to see them go.

Having entered the most recent TWHL competition, making a single player map in the same style as the original game, I really enjoyed giving it a go myself as well as playing the other entries. So I was thinking, why not start a similar thing on TWHL? Every so often, have a shorter competition to make a single player map in ANY Half-Life game, Source or Goldsource, with a specific theme? No mods or custom code or new models or anything like that. Just use the base game content to make a map that fits the theme.

Hell, it doesn't even need to be official and put more pressure on Penguinboy, but something like the minicompos that used to run from time to time.

Well, I didn't say the Villes were done with. We'll see what the future holds.

That said I'm 100% behind Urby's suggestion. One of these days I really will finish and submit a map on time here.

I stand corrected... Still, I do like a good, themed, single player mapping competition.

I like the idea, if Urby (and others!) wants to help organise them, I'll make them official competitions too. Why not! People keep asking for more compos anyway.

Does the site support official minicompetitions? I seem to recall you saying you wanted to implement that.

It supports multiple competitions running at once, not that it'll probably happen much. I think a smaller competition could still be labelled as a regular competition on the site though, there's probably no need for a mini-competition distinction.

I guess my main other question would be who would judge? I would presume an Urby would like to join in the mapping.

That is a pickle.

We could have challenges instead of competitions, no judging involved. Or a user poll instead.

TWHL already supports community voting for competition judging!

That's right, the beta's one was that, wasn't it? I forget, what's the mechanism behind that? Was it a simple vote for winner, count the votes deal?

Either way, that'd be the way to go, I imagine.

Yeah it's pretty simple, you can vote for up to 3 entries (you can't vote for yourself), and the winners are whoever gets the most votes.

You'd still want somebody to do the write-ups for the entries, but that could potentially be done by someone who entered (probably not for their own entry though), or I'm sure you could rustle up some moderators/admins/randoms to do the write ups.

Well, I'm satisfied. What's first up?

First up, I give Urby permission to create competitions. ....Done.

And then I run away.

"They're waiting for you Gordon, in the TWHL competition."

Wonder what would be the next competition's theme/subject.

Uhm... Oh. I... Oh. Lemme think about this.

I'd love to see more competitions based around set pieces or entities - lifts, some complex entity work like a keypad or bank vault, some gameplay element? Nothing that requires an extensively large map

"Compo 36: Rob a bank!"

My first thought was "Bossfight" in all honesty. Would be interesting to see people have a crack at making a decent arena and an interesting way of killing the boss. Could be anything like a Gargantua, Tentacles, a Strider, an Apache/Combine Hunter Chopper or hell even something like an Antlion guard.

Give the mini-competitions a corny RTSL Ville style name like:

• The Whole Boss Life - Map a boss fight
• The Whole Bridge Life - Make a map focused around a bridge
• The Whole Crowbar Life - Make a map where the player gets only a crowbar

And so on...

"Map a boss fight" reminds me of this map being played on Jessie's stream

We can finally utilize the polling function for something beside the color blue.

So a question that was recently put to me on Steam. Will the mini-competitions allow for custom content such as models, sound effects, textures and so on.

While I personally do not have any issue with this, I would say that there are a couple of preferences. Obviously no overwriting of base game content, and assign custom assets to their own directory for ease of removal. Hell, even mini-mods would be preferable if that were the case.

HOWEVER, bear in mind that the competitions will be mostly based on a specific theme and this is what they will be judged on. You can pile in as much custom content as you like in the interest of lore and world building, but if your map/maps don't properly address the theme of the competition then it's essentially a waste of your (very limited) time. I personally will give a much higher rating to the mapper that makes something unique with the vanilla assets, but in the end the community will be the ones casting votes.

Good to know about the custom content disclamer.

Looking forward to this.

What if the competition provided a base minimod, so that when all the entries get gathered together, they all go into one mod folder for easy grouping?

And can we get an official word specifically on custom code, because I feel like that is sort of a different level of custom content that doesn't tend to fit with these sorts of competitions.

Well, the issue there would be the difference between Source and Goldsource. I have no idea how to set up a Source mod.

Ah, good point. I'd not considered multiple games.

I realise now I only confirmed this to Dimbeak, but there will be a mini compo running in February. It'll be exactly four weeks long.

The idea isn't to build something enormous, just something that fits the theme. Four weeks is plenty of time for a mini compo I say. That's probably MORE than most of the RTSL VILLES had.

Well, the issue there would be the difference between Source and Goldsource. I have no idea how to set up a Source mod.

I can handle that.

And can we get an official word specifically on custom code, because I feel like that is sort of a different level of custom content that doesn't tend to fit with these sorts of competitions.

To be fair, the code and binaries would need to be open to everyone even non-programmers.

Time to get myself ready this February then ^^

No custom code, period. Entries will be base game code only, so no Spirit of Half-Life or whatever.

Any other custom content is fine, but as I said, not the focus of the competition and essentially just wasted time. It will be based purely on the map and how it complies with the theme.